I'm not familiar with aircraft batteries but in general..
Lead Acid and NiCad have very different charging requirements. Lead acid batteries are normally charged from a constant voltage source (with current limit). Nicad and NiMH cells are charged at a constant current with charge state monitoring or "voltage peak detection".
You can only use a charger designed for that battery chemistry and capacity. It's particularly dangerous to use the wrong type of charger. You are virtually guaranteed to have a fire with NiCad or NiMH calls and for sure with many lithium cells.
Even if using the right charger for your battery chemistry you must be careful. For example a charger designed to charge one capacity NiCad battery may destroy a much smaller capacity NiCad battery. The charge rate can be important as some cells are designed for fast charging and others not.
Last edited by cwatters; 6th Nov 2009 at 21:21.